It isn’t just council divided on the need for speed on local gravel roads.
Resident opinion appears divided as well according to reports at the Oct. 19 council session.
Councillor Wayne Stokley brought up the issue early in the meeting referring to comments made during a recent community forum and during the previous council session.
He cited the gravel road along Concession 7, where council pondered the idea of reducing the speed limit and posting signs to that effect.
Stokley said at its last meeting, council received information regarding the associated costs.
“It’s fairly significant, as compared to an easy fix.”
He said council also discussed altering any of its road speed bylaws to bring in any changes. Stokley said council needs to consider if it would be addressing just Concession 7 or all gravel roads in Puslinch. At the same time, it would need to consider the bylaw itself.
Mayor Dennis Lever pointed out that discussion has not happened yet. “Council has not decided which way it will go.”
He agreed that discussion is needed to determine if changes would be broad based or road specific.
Councillor Susan Fielding said she had received two telephone calls in the previous week from residents of Concession 7 who do not want the speed limits lowered.
“It’s obviously not a black and white issue,” she said.
She admitted to being somewhat taken aback by those comments, thinking they might not want to have people speeding in front of their homes.
“I agree that we do need discussion on this.”
Lever said he, too, received a call from a resident of a specific area who would like speed limits lowered because of restrictive views on that stretch of road.
“But again, the concerns were not broad based.”
He said he and councillor Ken Roth were looking at the township bylaw earlier in the day and the addendum to that bylaw is a long list of roads where speed limits have been altered over the years.
Therefore, he said, it would be simply a matter of adding specific sections of road into the existing bylaw – which in turn, refers to the Highway Traffic Act.
“I think we have to be a little careful here,” added Roth. “Just because an individual requests for the speed limit to be dropped [in a specific area] does not necessarily mean it is the right thing to do.”
He said further investigation and possibly traffic counts might be required before councillors make a decision.
“I remember being at a COPs committee meeting and someone on Maltby Road had requested a speed reduction.”
He said a police officer at that meeting, was against the change. The argument was that on gravel roads, traffic often appears to be faster than it really is, Roth said.
Plus, with the challenge of enforcement, Roth said councillors need to be careful.
“Every area needs to be looked at to provide rationale for that specific situation.”
Lever asked if road access sight lines are taken into consideration when new buildings are constructed. “That should be taken into consideration as well if there are limited sight lines.” He still does not favour a broad reduction of speed limits on gravel roads through the township.
Lever agreed with Roth there should be some study done before speed limits are reduced in any area.
Fielding agreed. “Once you do it for one person without having a certain set of criteria, how do you deny the next person?”
She said the same can be applied to other issues in the municipality – not just traffic and road speed. She wondered if a speed monitor or traffic counts are needed in that area.
Lever would like to see the road superintendent give council data on the traffic volume, and possibly the COPs committee speed monitor could be positioned there as well to collect further information via computer to get a better idea of what it really taking place.
“This would give us more evidence about what the real speeds are.”
Councillor Jerry Schmidt said over the years speed limits on gravel roads have traditionally been 50mph or 80km/h.
“Over that period of years, the gravel roads have improved dramatically, as well as the capabilities of the vehicles. I don’t think we should just jump on the request to consider lowering the limits … and certainly not carte blanche on all gravel roads.”
Schmidt said there are some areas where there might be merit looking at speed limits.
Fielding said she would also like to hear from the roads superintendent if there were concerns other than at Concession 7.
She said roads staff have a better grasp of the conditions.
Lever agreed that public works superintendent Don Creed also might have suggestions as to the criteria required to evaluate the roads.
